I have been buying frozen turkeys for Thanksgiving for ages, and I don’t care if I buy the damn things in August, they never thaw in a fridge before Thanksgiving, no matter what those stupid instructions say.
I always wind up putting it in the sink in cold water for a few hours.
For instance, this year we bought the 26 pound turkey last Saturday morning. Brought it home and immediately put it in the refrigerator…and today, that thing was still hard as a bowling ball.
It is currently floating in cold water in the sink.
I have to agree with you on this. I think that fridges today are too well insulated and also tend to be somewhat packed with food, so if anything, the frozen turkey helps make the other food colder all around…
I had an 18 pounder that stayed in the chest freezer until Monday evening, when it was moved to an ice chest with a couple layers of brown bags in the bottom. When I pulled it out today, it was just thawed with the main joints still a bit stiff and a big chunk of ice in the cavity. Ice chests are the way to go!
We had the same problem today. I had to thaw it before I could remove the innards because they were frozen to the rest of the turkey. It has been in the fridge since Saturday.
I once took a turkey in a cooler from WDC to west Africa. I filled the voids with packages of bacon, sausage, etc. It arrived still frozen solid as a cannonball. The overweight charges were about $250, so it was an expensive Thanksgiving, but it was worth it.
I found an amazing recipe last year for cooking a turkey from frozen. It works really well, especially since the breast is the last part to thaw and so cooks slower than the rest. It keeps the breast from being overdone and dry.
Last night at work, my coworker, a Rachael Ray fan, suggested that I immerse the frozen turkey in cold water, bottom to top. After working 9 hours and coming home to a frozen turkey, I followed her suggestion.
Today I baked my 16# turkey for five hours at 325 degrees. The turkey was a little dry, but still tasty.
I bought my frozen 22lb bird a week ago Friday, put it in the fridge immediately, only the inside cavity was slightly frozen. I have learned it takes at least a week to thaw a big bird.
Funniest thing ever. The first time I heard that–and it really has to be *heard *in McLean’s wonderful style–I laughed so hard I annoyed neighbours on both sides of us.
Dave Cooks the Turkey is a Christmas classic for me now.
You may now return to your US Thanksgiving thread.
325 is the wrong temperature to roast a whole turkey. The correct temperature is 425. Crank that oven up. You’ll roast the bird in half the time and it won’t be dry. This is my mission, to convert everyone to high roast for turkey.
I put my 14 lb. turkey in the fridge on Sunday and it did thaw by Wednesday night (that’s when we rubbed brown sugar and salt all over it before we smoked it today). There were a few ice crystals way inside, so I did run it under a little bit of running water. I also needed to rinse off where the “gravy packet” exploded all over the bird.
My roommate and I grilled a turkey a couple weeks ago. We thawed it for a couple days in the fridge; just enough so we could pry the legs apart. After we took all the giblets out, we put it in a five gallon pot with two gallons of water, two cups of salt, and two cups of brown sugar. We kept it in the brine for a couple days. Not sure how hot the grill was, but it took about two and a half hours. I’ve never had a turkey that moist, it was even more moist than the fried turkeys I’ve made in the past.
Happy U.S. Thanksgiving to everyone! I usually go over to my parents place, but a few years ago they were on holiday so I used the soak-in-brine, roast-on-high method (perhaps from a recipe found here, actually). I have to agree that it made for decidedly non-dry results, and was super easy even for a guy who does things at the last minute and doesn’t often advance beyond the toaster oven at dinner time.
